I recently gave an opening keynote (do lots of that stuff) for a small local conference of experts looking to solve some intractable problems. My normal contract is somewhere along the lines of 'will dance for food' and so I joined in their morning workshops. Moving around several tables, I kept hearing various knowitalls espousing their own corner of the world and the various moral dangers facing their favoured corner. Trouble is if you ignored the title of their corner and their epistemantic vocabulary, the issues were in fact all the same.
Everybody was talking and nobody was listening. So I lost my temper and started spouting about the bloody obvious coherence initially to an indignant hush. Followed in an equally sudden switch to a resounding guffaw. In a sort of "I've started so I may as well finish" moment, I went for it and improvised a metaphor, with all my usual shouting and bouncing and a big fat dollop of exaggerated melodrama. The following day I got this message:
... sincere thanks once again, for your contributions yesterday. We abandoned the option appraisal and scrapped the agenda in the afternoon in favour of your 'everyman's land' advice. You're impromptu rant was astonishing and we pretty much used the metaphor to navigate the issues for the rest of the day. Simple words with a complex meaning and as usual, I expect that you can't remember what you said. It sounded like poetry to me and I had a go at writing down what you were saying. It was all too fast for my scribbling, but I hope I captured the essence:
My life is full of caves and curiosity
And the first steps of explorers, magnificent
I will not fear the dark and pursue
Beware seekers of the light
Not fooled by the shadowy salesman
Fearless I turn from comfort
I shall see for myself without obsession
Stepping through grey gape
Holding my own mind
New words draw me deeper
The cave constrains, narrower, narrower
Echoing words twisting turns ever deeper
Eyes dark and mystery made manifest
The deep wizard dressed in eminence
A man no less reborn from darkness
Word wizardry, myths and symbols
Once an explorer turned prophet
To protect the precious
"They don't understand
You're not like the outsiders
You seek the light in the dark
You have earned the truth"
Another twist a final turn
Anticipated rewards so clear now
Why couldn't I see this before?
A final corner presents the light
My eyes bite at sharp focus
Wincing yes, I see, oh my god
You were right and I see it now
Here in your cave resides the light
I must touch my new god
Weakly slowly towards the pin of light
Mouth dry hands trembling fearful
Something stands inside the light
It's a body, a person, beckoning to me
Eye's fixated, the light piercing
A face comes into focus
The face of my own mother
I am reborn and she says ...
"What the fuck were you doing in there. Go in and have a look around, by all means, but come out before you turn into Gollum. The light is not in there, it's out here ... protect the precious ... my arse!"
And the first steps of explorers, magnificent
I will not fear the dark and pursue
Beware seekers of the light
Not fooled by the shadowy salesman
Fearless I turn from comfort
I shall see for myself without obsession
Stepping through grey gape
Holding my own mind
New words draw me deeper
The cave constrains, narrower, narrower
Echoing words twisting turns ever deeper
Eyes dark and mystery made manifest
The deep wizard dressed in eminence
A man no less reborn from darkness
Word wizardry, myths and symbols
Once an explorer turned prophet
To protect the precious
"They don't understand
You're not like the outsiders
You seek the light in the dark
You have earned the truth"
Another twist a final turn
Anticipated rewards so clear now
Why couldn't I see this before?
A final corner presents the light
My eyes bite at sharp focus
Wincing yes, I see, oh my god
You were right and I see it now
Here in your cave resides the light
I must touch my new god
Weakly slowly towards the pin of light
Mouth dry hands trembling fearful
Something stands inside the light
It's a body, a person, beckoning to me
Eye's fixated, the light piercing
A face comes into focus
The face of my own mother
I am reborn and she says ...
"What the fuck were you doing in there. Go in and have a look around, by all means, but come out before you turn into Gollum. The light is not in there, it's out here ... protect the precious ... my arse!"
_____________________
Couldn't make it up if I tried!
